1. Application, Selection, Preparation

To apply, simply complete the application form on our website by selecting:

the course (web development, data science)

the format (9-week full-time, 24-week part-time)

the city you're interested in

an introduction of why you want to join us and information about your personal project (if you have one!)

This is a quick process which only takes a few minutes. We will then contact you to schedule an interview (either in-person or online) to understand your motivations in more detail and answer any questions you have about our bootcamps.

How will you evaluate my online application?

In your online applications, we're only looking for one thing: motivation. Our bootcamps are very intense, fast-paced and demanding, and we will select only the most motivated students to get onboard. Make sure that you explain why you want to join Le Wagon in your application - the more details you give us, the better chance you have to get selected for the interview.

What's the interview about?

Web development course

Our Web Development bootcamp is designed for beginners and there are no prerequisite skills required. Our Admissions Manager will mostly assess your motivation as well as your professional and personal projects during the interview, to make sure they are consistent with the outcomes of the bootcamp.

Data science course

If you apply to our data science bootcamp, our Admissions Manager will also ensure that you already have some prerequisite skills in programming and Mathematics since the course builds up on these foundations.

Very quickly after the interview, you'll receive a notification to let you know if you've passed the interview and what the next steps are.

What are the next steps after the interview? Are there any assessments?

Web development course

Yes - If you're selected after the interview, you will then have to complete an online assessment of 8 to 15 hours covering basic concepts of programming in Ruby on Codecademy. This assessment does not really test your technical skills and everyone can do it! It's still a great way to assess your motivation and make sure that you are ready to eat, sleep and breathe code during the bootcamp. To get accepted onto the course, you must complete 100% of this assessment.

Tips : you will receive the link to this assessment on Codecademy right after applying to the course on our website. We recommend that you start working on it as soon as possible, even before the interview if you can. It's the best way to show us your motivation during the interview and it will give you a better chance of being accepted.

Data science course

No - There is no online assessment for the data science course since our Admissions Manager will check that you have the prerequisite skills in programming and Mathematics during the interview.

How will I know if I get accepted?

Web development course

If you pass the interview and complete 100% of the online assessment on Codecademy, it means you have the right motivation and are ready to dive into programming for two months. Congratulations, you've passed all the selection process and you can now join the web development bootcamp. Our Admissions Manager will get back to you with a contract and send you the preparation work to complete before the beginning of the course.

Data science course

If you pass the interview with our Admissions Manager, it means you have both the motivation and the prerequisite skills. Congratulations, you can now join the data science bootcamp. Our Admissions Manager will get back to you with a contract and send you the preparation work to complete before the beginning of the course.

Is there any preparation work once I get accepted?

Web development course

Yes, we will send you an online preparation work once you've passed all the selection process. This work takes around 60 hours and will give you a basic knowledge of how the web works, terminal basic commands, versioning and basic concepts of web development and tech workflows. This prepwork is absolutely mandatory and must be completed before the beginning of the bootcamp.

Data science course

Yes, we will send you an online preparation work once you've passed all the selection process. This work takes around 40 hours and covers the basics of programming with Python and SQL as well as some key concepts of Mathematics used every day by data scientists. This prepwork is absolutely mandatory and must be completed before the beginning of the bootcamp.

Can I join a waiting list if a session is full?

It is very rare that candidates abandon ship once they have been accepted to the course. Nevertheless, we always open a waiting list when bootcamps are full, in case this happens! To join the waiting list, you will have to to go through the exact same application process.

How should I choose the right city to do the course?

Le Wagon fulfils the exact same mission in all of our locations. The curriculum is the same everywhere as are all of our materials (lectures and exercises). Teachers and teaching assistants are hired and trained in the same way all around the globe.

Our advice to help choosing a city would be:

Environment: it is ideal to do the bootcamp in a city where you would like to build something - either take part in its tech community, launch your startup, or find a job

Quality of life: can I afford it ? Would I like the climate ? etc.

Language: check the language in which the bootcamp is actually done (our bootcamp is taught in English in most of our cities, but there are several exceptions - in Sāo Paulo and Belo Horizonte, the lectures are in Portuguese, in France the bootcamp is in French, etc.)

When will the next sessions take place?

We usually open applications 4 to 5 months in advance. You will see the next batch dates on the page of each city on Le Wagon’s website (accessible from the top navigation bar). If you're unsure about anything, feel free to reach out to the Admissions Manager of a specific city. They will gladly answer all of your questions and contact you as soon as we open the applications for the upcoming batch.

Do you help international students to get a visa?

Depending on your situation and where you would like to do the bootcamp, you will potentially need a tourist or business visa. Please reach out to the city's Admissions Manager for more information and possible assistance.

Extra information: for mainland China, in some cases, we can invite you on a Business Visa (M). Duration and number of entries vary according to your nationality. Please consult our team to have more information.

2. Tuition fees, Scholarships, Funding options

What are the tuition fees?

Price may vary depending on the location and its cost of living. You will find prices for our different courses on the page of each city on Le Wagon’s website (accessible from the top navigation bar).

Are there any scholarships available?

Some cities offer scholarships for co-founders, locals, women in tech, or in partnership with local organisations. You will find more details about these scholarships on the page of each city on Le Wagon’s website. Also feel free to reach out to the local admission manager for more information and possible assistance.

What payment plans do you offer? What are the instalments and payment schedule?

Once a candidate is officially admitted, a down payment will be required upon the training agreement signature to secure the student's seat. The remaining balance shall be paid in one or several instalments, depending on the city policies.

Are there other funding options available, like deferred tuition, student loans or ISA?

Some cities offer specific funding options with local financial partners, like deferred tuition plans, student loans with interesting conditions or Income Share Agreements (ISA). Again, you will find more details about these options on the page of each city on Le Wagon’s website. Also feel free to reach out to the local admission manager to have more details about their local funding options.

3. Student profile

I don't have any technical background, can I join the course?

Web development course

You don't need any technical background to join our web development bootcamp. We expect 3 things from our students: be (extremely) motivated, be curious, be social. If this sounds like you, then we'll be more than happy to have you on board if you pass all the selection process.

Data science course

The data science course requires some basic knowledge of programming and mathematics.

How much programming do I need to know? Well, you must be comfortable with data types & variables, conditions, loops, functions and data structures like arrays and dictionaries (also called hashes in some programming languages). If you know those topics in other languages than Python (like Ruby, JavaScript, C++, VBA, etc.), you have the right programming prerequisites!

How much mathematics do I need to know? In order to join our data science course, you also need a minimum level in Mathematics and to be familiar with concepts covered in high school's scientific section. We need you to be comfortable with functions, their derivatives & systems of linear equations. To get up to speed, some additional preparation work will be given to you before the bootcamp start to get a refresh of all these concepts as well as more advanced knowledge on linear algebra and statistics.

Is there a typical profile for a Le Wagon student?

Our students all have very different profiles. They are between 18 and 55, and they all share the same curiosity and enthusiasm for coding and data. They all come from various background: undergraduates, marketers, engineers, sales, lawyers, journalists, architects, musicians... Thus, spending 9 weeks at Le Wagon is not only an incredible human experience, it also helps you build an astonishing network for your after-bootcamp life to keep learning and find amazing job or freelance opportunities!

I'm under 18 years old, can I apply?

You need to be 18 to enroll for the course. However, you can apply if you are 17 as long as you turn 18 before the start of the bootcamp.

I'm over 40 years old, should I apply?

We’ve had students over 40 in the past and they’ve succeeded in learning web development or data science and staring new careers like anyone else. Age doesn’t make any differences in the recruitment process to get onboard, the only thing we consider is your commitment and your motivation.

I don't currently have an idea of a final project to work on. Is it a problem?

Don't worry about it! Students with a project are invited to pitch their idea during the bootcamp while people without one are welcome to team up with them.

What language is the bootcamp taught in?

In most cities, the bootcamp is taught in English.

In French cities, the program is in French. You will have a 1h30 lecture in the morning in French, and a 1h30 live-code in the evening in French as well. So, if you don't understand French correctly, you won't be able to attend the bootcamp in France.

In some other cities (São Paulo, Shanghai, Chengdu, Tokyo) specific sessions are organised in other languages (Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese). You can check the language of the next batch on the "Apply" page.

Extra info: all the challenges' instructions and written documentation are in English, so all students must have a good level and understanding or written English, even in cities where lectures are given in another language.

Do I need a laptop?

Each student must have a laptop. You’ll need Mac OS X or Linux, but if you only have Windows, no worries, you’ll learn how to install Linux the first day.

⚠️ A Microsoft Surface or Apple iPad won't do. Those are not real computers. If you need a piece of advice on what to buy, please contact the staff.

4. General info and course schedule

What's the course schedule? What's the level of commitment required?

Full-time schedule

The full-time bootcamp is a 9-week program, from Monday to Friday, 9am - 6pm. To get the most out of the program, you need to be fully committed to it as it is a truly demanding experience (360 hours of code in 9 weeks + the additional time for preparation work). Generally, people who keep a side activity during the bootcamp struggle to keep pace.

Part-time schedule

The part-time bootcamp is a 24-week program, where students come for two on-campus sessions from 6:30pm to 9:30pm generally on Tuesday evening and Thursday evening and for an additional session on Saturday all day from 10am to 5pm.

In addition, part-time students have some homework and course videos to watch before coming to an on-campus session to benefit the most from the session, e.g. practice, interact with their classmates and ask their questions to teachers instead of listening to a course after a day of work. The part-time program is really a marathon of 24 weeks! It requires students to be rigorous, to do their homework, and be even more committed than for full-time.

Note that the part-time schedule can be slightly adapted in each city and include some breaks for public holidays.

What is the main difference between Le Wagon and other coding bootcamps?

7 years of experience

Le Wagon was founded in 2013 and has more than 7 years of experience teaching tech skills and helping people change their life, start a career in tech and thrive in their new job. More than 7,000 alumni have graduated from our bootcamps in 39 cities around the world, and Le Wagon is ranked #1st coding bootcamp on both Switchup and Course Report, leading authorities on student reviews. Feel free to reach out to any of our graduates on Linkedin to ear what they have to say about Le Wagon.

Making you team-ready

We've spent a lot of time improving our two bootcamps in web development and data science to teach our students the core concepts and give them solid foundations, but also to make sure they learn how to collaborate in a tech team with the right methodology and workflow, and that they know how to use modern tools and apply best practices in Web Development and Data Science. This makes Le Wagon's graduates extremely interesting for tech recruiters since lots of other bootcamps don't necessarily teach these extra skills focusing their curriculum more on a specific technology or language.

A unique community

Le Wagon's community is the most active bootcamp network with more than 7000 alumni, 100 startups founded by alumni (raising more than $80 million altogether) and 1000 teachers in web development and data science. Once you graduate from Le Wagon, you belong to this vibrant family, you will keep learning for life with the support of this community, and access unique job and freelance opportunities.

What is the main difference between Le Wagon and an academic degree in Computer Science or Data Science?

The main difference between an academic degree and a bootcamp is that we don't start from scratch and we learn with a lot of practice using modern tools and methods. In an academic curriculum in CS or DS, you will start learning all the theoretical knowledge (e.g. hardware layer of your computer for a CS degree, or advanced concepts of linear algebra and statistics for a DS degree) before moving to applied topics like web development or machine learning. This is only useful if you want to be able to navigate between these layers. However nowadays, you can build almost anything while only mastering the last part. That's why we designed our bootcamps this way. Of course you won't work at Tesla as a software engineer or at Google as a Deep Learning expert (unless you already have a scientific background when joining our bootcamp) but you will be able to work on your own tech products, web applications and data science projects or find a job as a junior developer, data scientist, data analyst or product manager with enough skills and knowledge to get started in your new company and bring value. Of course, that will be your role to keep learning in your new job and become more expert in specific topics.

Do you provide accommodation/catering?

We do not provide accommodation or catering. The price of the course only includes the tuition - and unlimited tea, coffee, fruits. Nonetheless, our city managers will be more than happy to recommend some great places for your stay as they are used to helping students find accommodation and have lots of good plans.

5. Web development curriculum

What will I be able to build at the end of the web development bootcamp?

At the end of the 9 weeks (full-time) or 24 weeks (part-time), you will have a Ruby on Rails junior developer level. This means you will be able to quickly prototype your ideas by creating web applications on your own. For instance, you will know how to include authentication to your web application (simple signin/signup, or Facebook/WeChat connect), add an admin back-office, include payment features, automate e-mails sending, and much more. You will also know how to quickly deploy in production and you will have learnt the programming best practices used by the best tech companies. You will then have different options at the end of the course:

We do teach TDD. Every day, students work on exercises prepared and refined for 4 years by Le Wagon’s pedagogical team. Those use the red / green / refactor methodology. Every evening, during the livecode, the class starts from a blank sheet and uses TDD to solve the challenges. We teach RSpec, the testing framework most used by rubyists.

Will I learn mobile app development?

You will learn some concepts behind mobile app development. Let’s be clear: you will not learn iOS, Android or Windows Phone development. We really think these skills cannot be taught (honestly) in 9 weeks. We prefer teaching you the basics of programming and web development for many reasons. First, these are the core skills of a software engineer, even if you want to dive into mobile development later on. Second, the web is THE open platform you need to understand. Thanks to Responsive Web Design (which is part of the program), and WeChat mini programs (in China), you will be able to create apps that will display nicely on mobile devices. You will also learn to create APIs that will be used by your mobile apps. It will then be very easy for any mobile developers to code your iOS or Android interface starting from the API you’ve built.

6. Data science curriculum

What will I be able to do at the end of the data science bootcamp?

At the end of the 9 weeks, you will have all the skills you need to launch your career in a data science team. You will finish the course knowing how to explore, clean and transform data into actionable insights and how to implement machine learning models from start to finish in a production environment, working in teams with the best-in-class tool belt.

You will then have different options:

Find a job and join a team as data scientist, data analyst or data engineer

Work as a freelancer on data science projects

Launch a data science project as an entrepreneur

Will I be able to apply to a data scientist job?

The job title "Data Scientist" can correspond to very different roles depending on the company (startup, scale-up, big company), the product you're working on and the team you will join. After Le Wagon's data science bootcamp, you will be able to apply to data analyst jobs. For data scientist or data engineer jobs, it will depend on the company and their criteria. For instance, some big tech companies (e.g. Airbnb or Facebook) will only accept data scientists profiles with a PhD in Mathematics, so you will not be able to apply to these positions unless you come to our data science bootcamp with a strong background in Mathematics already. In lots of smaller companies (like early-stage startups or data agencies) they will accept candidates with solid foundations in data science but less academic background in Mathematics, so they will be very interested in your profile after the course.

7. Career services

Do you offer career support?

Once the bootcamps ends, you will benefit from our career services.

Our local team will help you prepare for tech interviews, meet the best local recruiters and connect with relevant alumni. You will also have access to a complete guide to kick-start your tech career after the course: boost your portfolio, prepare for technical interviews, leverage on our 7000 alumni community, but also to lots of useful Slack channels to find jobs or freelance opportunities.

Our local team will introduce you to the right people depending on your goal and you will meet with inspiring alumni who will come back to share their post-bootcamp experiences, like how they found a job, started their own company or freelancing career.

8. Partnership with Le Wagon

Many companies share their job offers with our alumni. However, recruitment is a long-term relationship and as such we would love to connect with you first!

Can my company participate in your recruitment events?

We hold regular recruitment events, during which our hiring partners meet our students and alumnis. From regular events to great workshops to promote your company's culture, we would love to discuss the best format fitting your needs around a coffee. Tell us a bit more about you and join our alumni network right here!

Do you have a B2B training offer?

Based on our experience with the Full-Stack bootcamp for the past 4 years, we came up with a complete offer for companies. We create tailored education programs that drive and complement your digital objectives by teaching your employees the basics of web development, web design, product management and prototyping. Depending of your needs we can build the program which will suits your company's interests best. Contact us for more info!